Different newspapers select and have different priorities (news values) on where they place their stories.

 

1. Why does it read the way it does, and what is the intended meaning or ideas being communicated?

Different news stories read in ways that strategically use the news values in order to grab the readers attention and persuade them to buy the paper, some papers like tabloids like to use shock value generated from the news values of unexpectedness and using elite persons/places to fit in with the lifestyle theme that they use for example the sun. Other news values like negativity and threshold make news stories have a bigger impact on the reader as negativity creates the idea of a moral panic and threshold creates a bigger reach for the story. Furthermore newspapers also use the news value of unambiguity to make the story more straightforward for the reader to understand which is likely to make the newspaper easier to read and likely to increase sales, especially for tabloids that favour this value for example the sun that uses language a nine year old can understand. other news values like personalisation and proximity help to make the story more personal and make the audience feel more emotional and help the news firms get more sales, a value that works closely with personalisation is proximity as the closer the story is to that area where it is sold the more it will interest the reader. Lastly the news value of continuity is useful for newspapers to use when there is no breaking news or top stories they can use on the headlines and so instead use an ongoing story which will still be likely to interest the audience.